Top 167 Motown Quotes & Sayings

One thing I can say about the Motown acts is that we were a family. That's not a myth

I left Motown because of the regime of people who were there.

Once you're a Motown artist, you're always a Motown artist

I grew up listening to oldies, like Motown. That's from my mom.

I feel Motown really exploited me.

One of my strongest memories is my father playing bongos in the living room in Detroit listening to Motown radio. He was this skinny white bald guy, but he was really moved by blues and Motown and funk.

People still look at Michael Jackson as being a Motown artist.

Once you're a Motown artist, you're always a Motown artist.

I grew up listening to Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and lots of blues, R&B and Motown.

We got really excited by Motown and early '60s soul music that was fun sounding.

Once you're a Motown artist, that's your stigmatism, and I was there from the very first day

My introduction to Motown was through The Jackson Five and Michael Jackson. Michael's been my greatest creative inspiration, so that's how I really became familiar with Motown as a whole, and as I got older, I learned far more about the other groups.

I listen to a lot of oldies stuff. Some Motown, Michael Jackson, jazz, etc.

I didn't grow up with my dad, or around the whole legacy. I was post-Motown, so I'd always hear stories and wonder what was it like.

Many of my friends were there at Motown. The studio was only a few blocks from where my dad's home was, where we lived.

We are all big Motown fans.

I know that's blasphemous when you are from Detroit, but I was never a fan of Motown stuff. I don't care for the production much.

Motown will always be a heavy-duty part of my life because those are my roots.

My mum used to listen to Motown. Diana Ross was my first singing teacher, really. I'd just sing along all the time.

I often call Daptone the Motown and Stax of today. But in some ways it's different. At Motown, a lot of the musicians didn't get recognized, music got stolen, and people didn't get paid. Or the label would just throw them a pinch of money for their songs. That is one thing we're not doing. Anything anyone writes here, we get a percentage.

My dad liked a lot of Motown, but I didn't listen to it until my teenage years.

My mom was a huge Adam and the Ants fan. My granddad listened to a lot of Motown and Elvis and Johnny Cash. So I was kind of well-rounded.

There are many influences in my music, not only blues. R&B, Motown, gospel, old timey, jazz, even classical are all part of what I do. I started with classical, then country, then blues, and after that I started listening heavily to Motown and gospel. My earliest efforts as a songwriter were soul. Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Wilson Pickett, Gladys Knight, James Brown, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Fontella Bass are just a few of the names that come to mind as the God's of soul and Motown.

I don't ever balk at being considered a Motown person, because Motown is the greatest musical event that ever happened in the history of music

Everyone you talk to in the world, whether they know it or not, because the catalog is so vast, a lot of times people have favorite songs that are Motown songs that they didn't even know were Motown songs.

Motown, Motown, that's my era. Those are my people.

'Let's Get It On' is a classic Motown single, endlessly repeatable and always enjoyable.

Motown was pop, Atlantic was R&B.

The only recording studio was in Motown - it was called Tamla/Motown at that time and we used to audition there because Smokey Robinson was at that studio and Berry Gordy was the president. I remember asking Smokey to listen to my group and he did. For the first couple of years we were just singing background. We used to back up Marvin Gaye; Mary Wells was there then, Marv Johnson, the Marvelettes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Junior Walker and the All-Stars.

Even before coming into the industry, I was a big fan of Motown, the Jackson 5, Gladys Knight, the Temptations, Diana Ross and The Supremes.

I love funk and soul and Motown.

Motown's policy was to build one act at a time or their favorites.

Motown will always be a heavy-duty part of my life because those are my roots

I grew up with Cher and Motown, beautiful costumes.

Motown wasn't just pioneering a sound but a cultural dynamic.

Style and image - it's what Motown is about. They had a charm school led by Maxine Powell. There was literally an artists' development department.

Once you're a Motown artist, that's your stigmatism, and I was there from the very first day.

One thing I can say about the Motown acts is that we were a family. That's not a myth.

Back in the day, Motown was on the pulse of young America. It wasn't about just dope contemporary. It was pop, it was R&B, it was all of that.

Ron White was not one of the very first original members of the Motown staff, but eventually he was.

I want to bring that old soul back, the meaningful lyrics and all of that. And I can't think of a better way to do that than through Motown.

The biggest thing Motown did was change our social fabric: the way we interacted with each other as human beings.

I honed in on a great time, the Motown era, the '60s and '70s. That type of music has always been a staple in my life.

I love Motown, but I've obviously always been more of a Memphis soul fan. If it's Stax or Motown, I go Stax.

I don't ever balk at being considered a Motown person, because Motown is the greatest musical event that ever happened in the history of music.

Every Motown act dressed classy, and we were clean-cut. Whenever you saw a Motown act, they were polished, and they knew how to treat people.

Motown was the mecca. It was every writer's dream to work there.

My mom taught me every dance move I've ever known to the Motown hits.

I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown.

There are certain things that we take for granted that simply would not have existed without the great migration. Motown, for example, would not have existed - it simply would not, because Berry Gordy, the founder of it, his parents had migrated from Georgia to Detroit where he founded Motown, and where did he get his talent?

Growing up, I liked all the stuff that everyone else was listening to, like Motown, but the biggest group of all was The Beatles.

Artist development is something that I've been passionate about from my days at Uptown and Motown Records.

We call 'Ain't No Mountain' the golden egg that landed us at Motown.

I listened to a lot of Marvin Gaye and Motown records.

My folks had a lot of Motown records, so that was a kind of an early inspiration. I grew up on the radio really.

Testify' went from a clean Motown song to straight psychedelic. Loud and feedback and people was loving it, because Motown was ending now.

I love Motown, that whole era. Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson. I just put on Pandora, and put it on Motown, and it makes me smile; makes me smile so much.

I've purposely made my music to be challenging and different. There's some electronics, R&B, blues, Motown, country, jazz and lots of soul.

I would describe my sound as classic Motown.

Well, I had an after hours club in Vancouver and when any of the Motown acts would call.